You have to be supremely confident of your audience to risk the "wha'happen???" scenario Child employs here, leaving the hero's fate dangling. But those of us who have fallen for the series are likely to laugh at both Child's audacity and our hunger for the next installment. Reacher doesn't win fans as much as he makes us bug-eyed addicts, ready to mow old people and children over to get to the New Titles table. One prominent writer has already suggested breaking into Child's house to read over his shoulder as he typed. When I saw Child stop into a New York bookstore recently to sign copies of 61 Hours, I was tempted to shout, "What are you doing? Get back to work!!" Sound nuts? It is. Lee Child has only himself to blame.

Strange trips If you want this summer’s eerie subject matter to hit a bit closer to home, or a bit closer to reality, check out Strange Maine: True Tales from the Pine Tree State , by Michelle Souliere (The History Press; $17.99).

Review: The Road John Hillcoat doesn't stray from Cormac McCarthy's Road For those who found the Coen Brothers' adaptation of Cormac McCarthy's No Country for Old Men too lighthearted, John Hillcoat's relentlessly faithful version of the author's post-apocalyptic Pulitzer-winning novel might hit the spot.

Pleasure principles Willard Spiegelman seems like a nice guy. He has had the good luck to live a happy life without major disaster or suffering. But as a long-time professor of English at Southern Methodist University and editor of the Southwest Review , he has ended up living his life among just those people — writers and academics.

Tired sleuth Has Walter Mosley gone off crime fiction? With the creation of Easy Rawlins in 1990, Mosley perfected the African-American side of the genre — along with a poetic and insightful take on post-war LA up through the 1960s — in 11 consistently solid books, the most recent coming out in 2007.

Viral bloodsuckers for the summer It might require you to buy a bigger beach tote, but there's no doubt that summer's must-read is Justin Cronin's The Passage , a hulking 766-page epic that traces the genesis and fallout of apocalyptic viral vampirism.

Summer treats From Andean to zydeco, pick your flavor and there's a summer music festival ready to serve it up.

Art in the air conditioning From Picasso to William "Shrek" Steig's cartoons, and surfer photos to a Twilight Zone toy store, New England offers art worth traveling to this summer. Here we round up the best in the region, no matter the weather or your artistic inclinations.

The Big Hurt: This week in brand synergy Uh oh, it appears I don't have anything important to make fun of — I was really counting on a member of Aerosmith's dying right before my deadline or something, but no such luck. Let's mine the press-release pile for some fresh squareness.

Review: Per Petterson plumbs The River of Time Why would Per Petterson — the bestselling Scandinavian writer whose books don't feature an invincible crimefighting heroine — curse the river of time when he is so adept at navigating it?

KATE BEYOND TIME: THE KATE MOSS BOOK | January 08, 2013 Almost all models who achieve some degree of fame find themselves blamed for whatever agenda their era's most vocal scold happens to be pushing.

INTERVIEW: NINA HOSS ON BARBARA | December 18, 2012 Quietly over the last 11 years, one of the strongest collaborations in contemporary cinema has been developing between the German director Christian Petzold and the actress he often chooses to star in his films, Nina Hoss. Petzold and Hoss's latest collaboration, Barbara , is their richest and finest film.

SLIDESHOW: THE CHEAP NEAR-THRILLS OF SEXYTIME | December 14, 2012 With porn so privately accessible now, we don't worry about the stigma attached to its consumption, the thought of someone pausing to peruse the art in front of an adult movie theater (hell, the thought of an adult movie theater) instead of just ducking in before being seen is almost touching.

BUNNY YEAGER’S NAKED AMBITION | October 05, 2012 Pin-up photography has served so many purposes — outlet for male desire; outlet for feminist ire; retro kitsch emblem — that it has barely been talked about as photography.